Friday, October 21, 2011

Catholic Answers on the Canon

4 comments:

Jimmy Akin's answers here are a bit loose -- in fact, a glance at the tables in the back of The Canon Debate (an excellent book by the way) reveals that the various councils cited by Akin had slightly different lists of OT books. Even as late as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, the Pope was putting books in an appendix of apocrypha.

And, as anyone who has looked at an ecumenical Bible will immediately recognize, there is still an OT debate today.

Finally, even though the canon is now set by Church Law, it is still a popular topic in the academy, with dozens of books appearing each quarter translating, analyzing, or defending non-canonical works. I don't think the canon will be re-opened based on the labors of these researchers, but some of these collections (e.g., the Apostolic Fathers) are well worth reading for the lay faithful.

Is the canon of scripture set by Church law though? I thought that the Council of Trent had declared the canon of scripture to be a matter or doctrine? That is, I thought that the Council of Trent had infallibly dealt with that. If it is a matter of canon law, then that would imply that the Church has left this matter open to some sort of debate.

But despite this declaration, the Eastern Churches (including most Eastern Catholic Churches) and Protestants have canons different than Roman Catholics. And it is certainly the case that extra-biblical books are widely studied by Bible scholars.

In fact, the (1590-1598) Clementine Vulgate and the (1610-1611) Douay translation include extra books in the appendix of apocrypha (admittedly, these are explicitly declared to be apocrypha and outside the Canon of Scripture.)

Blog Patron

This blog is intended to be a place where Catholics and other Christians can discuss Catholic Bible editions, study tools, and other issues concerning the Catholic faith.
You can contact me via email at: mccorm45 (at) yahoo (dot) com

Vulgate-Douay-Knox

Catholic Bible Online

NABRE

NRSV

Message 4 Next Week

Prayer of Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.